First time Burner (hopefully) needs some ticket advice

[senortuck]

Howdy,

So Feb's ticket sale came and went and I was unsuccessful. Fear not, I thought, STEP will deliver. Preparations continued. I attended a newbie event at Burning Man HQ in San Francisco. Learned all about something called rebar, the importance of fluorescent patches and made a note to bring along enough salty snacks to feed half the Playa!
STEP did not deliver! Fear not, I thought, OMG won't let me down. Preparations continued. Had a look on Stubhub and eBay. Got annoyed at the crazy prices and decided not to look there again.
OMG did not deliver!
Broke my 'no Stubhub' rule and checked out the prices. A thousand bucks!!! Re-implemented my 'no Stubhub' rule. (Started thinking about a better ticket distribution system for next year's Burning Man to combat the scalpers.)

So now I find myself in the following situ:
-Two weeks from the main event.
-Two of my sisters are flying in from Ireland for BM
-We don't have a ticket between us.
Some say fear not, they always materialize closer to the date. But with some many veteran Burners still ticketless, I'm starting to lose hope. So my question is, are there anymore tickets out there? Is this the worst year ever for tickets? Where do these mythical tickets come from? I continuously trawl Craigslist and the forums, but for every one ticket for sale, there are 20 buyers. Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Thomas

[BBadger]

Yup.

Make other plans.

What else do you want to hear?

[BoyScoutGirl]

Back-up plans could not hurt. Yosemite, Grand Canyon, the redwoods... there are plenty of amazing camping possibilities.

I definitely suggest working local networks as hard as you can. There may be some local art projects that could use a last-minute hand with breaking down and packing up. If so, help out. The more people you know and the more people who know you're looking will broaden your network.

[mdmf007]

persistence - hit every seller that is offering a ticket for sale, check eplaya often... There are scalpers, but you dont want to be that guy that spends 1200 on a ticket that may be cancelled since it was scalped.

thats about all you can do at this point. There are no magic avenues for tickets - the days of showing up and buying at the gate have long been gone.

MDMF

[Bounce530]

...and I knocked my post down since I learned how to comprehend what I read.
Thnx fishy
good luck on the search op.

[theCryptofishist]

Pssst. Bounce, he's been prepping since February....

[Eric]

I'm moving this over to Tickets Discussion, since it more general questions.

Keep watching & hunting as the event gets closer, but definitely plan alternatives if they don't come through. The west is gorgeous this time of year, and there is plenty to explore. Hope to see you in the dust, but have a blast where-ever you end up!

[trilobyte]

Anyone who told you "fear not, they always materialize" was clearly mistaken. Sure, tickets do end up becoming a bit more available later in the summer, but there's no guarantee. It all depends on both supply and demand, and in the last couple years demand has far outstripped supply. The current situation is pretty much what I and others on the board had been forecasting since the start of the season.